1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus configured to execute image processing when an inside of a luminal organ of a subject is observed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an endoscope configured to observe an inside of a subject has been widely used in a medical field and the like. The endoscope is inserted into luminal organs branched in a complicated manner, such as renal calyces of a kidney, and used for examination and observation of existence of a lesion or the like in some cases.
In a conventional example disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2013-27697, a virtualized endoscope configured to virtually perform endoscopic observation based on a viewpoint position set in a luminal organ is used to generate a virtualized endoscopic image, and an observed region and an unobserved region in the virtualized endoscope are obtained. The observed region and the unobserved region are displayed on an image obtained from a three-dimensional image of the luminal organ in a manner that the observed region and the unobserved region can be distinguished.
In the conventional example, the observed region provided with light on an inner wall of the luminal organ and the unobserved region not provided with the light are calculated when a light beam is virtually applied in a view angle of the virtualized endoscope at the viewpoint position and visual line direction set in the luminal organ. When the virtualized endoscope is moved for example, a similar process is executed at each of the moved viewpoint positions.